In recent years, it is known a technology of controlling, for example, a load provided in a consumer or a dispersed power source provided in a consumer by a power management apparatus (for example, HEMS: Home Energy Management System) provided in each consumer.
Examples of the dispersed power source may include a fuel cell unit including a fuel cell such as an SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell). Examples of the dispersed power source may include a power generation equipment that utilizes clean energy such as sunlight, wind power, or geothermy.
In this case, generally, the power output from the fuel cell unit is controlled to follow power consumption of a load provided in a consumer (for example, Patent Literature 1). However, there is a case where when the power consumption of a load provided in a consumer rapidly increases, the power output from the fuel cell unit cannot follow the power consumption of the load.
As measures for such a case, a technology has been proposed which prevents shortfall of the power supplied to the load even when the power consumption of the load provided in a consumer rapidly increases, by providing a large-capacity battery or capacitor.
However, in the above-described technology, it is needed to provide a large-capacity battery or capacitor, and a cost of a whole system including the fuel cell unit rises.